ASSOCIATION NEWS
‘Using less’ is a trend that sees, for instance, more and more packaging-free grocery stores where environmental concerns and innovation are key. A good example of packaging which addresses this is the sustainable expanded bowl - a sustainable package customised for freeze-dried food - manufactured by Swedish company Innventia.
Using less – Swedish company Innventia say the expanding bowl is made from “special carton bio-based” material. When pouring hot water into the package the mechano-active material will react to the heat and transform from a compressed packaging to a serving bowl.
‘Extreme sensory’ is another trend which packaging designers are using more often to grab consumers’ attention. The trend makes the consumer engage with the product in a way that he or she has never done before. An outstanding example of this is the way Festina watches package their upmarket product in water!
Products that we trust - And last, but not least, are the packaging trends that are led by products that we trust and never question, like Coke! These trusted brands manage to stay relevant and earn consumers’ trust no matter what they do. Coke recently undertook a campaign in Colombia in which it released a limited edition of the original Coke bottle made entirely of ice. The product sold out in record time, even though it cost more than twice the price of a ‘normal’ Coke. Products that we trust – Looking for an icecold Coke on a hot summer’s day? You now have to travel no further than to Colombia (yes, the country). Coca-Cola, in partnership with Ogilvy & Mather Bogota, rolled out a limited-edition bottle made entirely from ice! The new container - only available in Colombia - is shaped like the traditional glass Coke bottle and has the company’s name etched into the frozen water. The bottle is wrapped with a red rubber band, which also doubles as a bracelet that prevents frozen fingers. For the eco-minded, the bottle melts when the drinkers are finished
‘Extreme sensory’ – what better way to showcase that Festina Profundo is a waterproof watch than to create a packaging that lets the watch float in water?
Disturbing trends in pollution patterns Gerry Kuhn of Dust Watch spoke about the worrying trends manifesting in pollution patterns. Kuhn talked about packaging materials and their impact on sustainability and a health environment. He covered air quality, the degradation of packaging materials at a submicronic level and the effect of certain substances on public health. Kuhn said that the packaging industry was the source of many potential pollutants. In precipitant dust monitoring Kuhn said that plastic material fibres Isolated polypropylene fibres found in precipitant dust monitoring
were discovered from time to time in areas well away from factories that could have been the source. “Research over almost 10 years has yielded a rapidly increasing content of artificial fibres. With the increase we have established that most of the fibres are in fact polypropylene and these seemed to emanate mainly from woven fibrous packaging material,” he said. Once synthetic fibres have been in the sun for some time they become brittle and can then easily break and also show a tendency to split. The fibres are normally anything between 10 microns and 25 microns. At this size they do not pose any sort of health risk and if inhaled will be captured in the throat or sinuses. For such a fibre to be a respiratory risk it would need to be below 5 microns in diameter. Kuhn explained that eventually the 10 or 20 micron fibre does split into between 10 and 20 individual fibres. These are brittle enough to break up
AUGUST / SEPTEMBER 2013
even further, posing a respiratory risk. “However, there is no evidence that polypropylene is a carcinogenic, which is the case with silica dust or asbestos. Even if such a fibre is ingested we have no proof that this could have serious consequences. There has not been any identified instance of lung accumulations,” said Kuhn. Retail trends impacting on packaging Gareth Pearson of BMI Research held the audience’s attention focusing on retail trends that impact packaging in SA and how these affect local packaging and demand. He said 2013 had seen the lowest GDP in SA of 0.9% and that the consumer was under enormous pressure trying to stretch a limited disposal income. “Margin pressure is forcing innovation and making us think about how can we do things more efficiently?” said Pearson.